Kramer

Hickok

The 30-year-old Higgs finished 69th over the weekend at the Charles Schwab Challenge, where he opened with a 69 for his best round of the week, and steadily lost ground following rounds of 71 and 75 before ballooning to an 80 in the final round. On the season, Higgs has made 12 cuts in 22 starts with one top 10 (T-9, CJ Cup @ Summit). Hickock, also 30, missed the cut at the Charles Schwab after shooting 71-71. He’s made nine cuts in 22 starts this season with one top 10 (fourth, Houston Open). This week will mark his tournament debut at Muirfield Village. In other field updates on Monday, Sam Ryder (MC at Schwab) moved into the field after England’s Laird Shepherd withdrew.

With the closet call of his career occurring on a Pete Dye design, Hickok has the potential to take to Harbour Town. An accurate driver of the golf ball, recent weeks have seen the Texan’s driving accuracy dip. In the bottom half of the field in his last three starts, Hickok has posted finishes of T-33 at the Valspar Championship, T13 at the Corales Puntacana Championship, and MC at the Valero Texas Open. Experiencing strong ball-striking efforts the last two times he has visited a Dye design – TPC Sawgrass and PGA West – if able to consistently find the short grass off-the-tee, the 29-year-old should have no issues in his tournament debut.

The Texas Longhorn had it on a string today with 10-of-13 fairways hit and 15 greens landed in regulation. Yet, 83% of his total strokes gained were added through the short-game departments (+1.3 Around the Green and +1.8 Putting). “I had some great up-and-downs for par and made some good 5-, 6-footers for par throughout the day. But the good shots that I hit were really good so I gave myself a lot of birdie looks so obviously that’s important.” Hickok is making his third appearance at the Valspar with a T46 and T57 already on his tournament resume. More recently, he was T3 after round one of THE PLAYERS but faded gradually to T42 by week’s end.

The University of Texas product gave himself plenty of good looks on his opening nine and converted three of them into birdies. On the back nine, he gave himself just two scoring chances inside of 25 feet but did well with his short game to maintain a clean card while also adding a bonus birdie from 27'1" at the par-3 17th. “I think it’s a good round. I had ultimate control over the golf ball today. Conditions were very favorable for us. It was perfect scoring conditions for what this tournament can yield. Last year was super firm and fast, and this is about as soft and pristine as I think I’ve seen it.” Hickok walked off the course ranked 12th in strokes gained off-the-tee and 5th in putting. He’ll try to keep the momentum rolling in round two which may or may not happen tomorrow, depending on the weather.

Known for his 8-hole playoff with Harris English at the Travelers Championship, Hickok may have reentered the spotlight with his recent podcast appearance. Discussing the Saudi League with @froggyradio, Froggy asked Hickok if he believes a “major name” would be making the leap. The former Texas Longhorn replied, “Yeah, you’re going to see a lot of big names jump over there. I think there has already been 17 guys that are jumped over. I can’t say who they are, but there are going to be some big names going over there. From what I have heard, the money is very, very appealing. You’re only going to have 12 to 14 events. Those events are going to have huge purses. You’re not going to have to deal with missing a cut anymore, there are only going to be 40 players and 10 of those 14 events will be in the states. Signing bonuses, huge, huge, huge purses, it is going to be very appealing for some of these guys. Especially, the issue we are having on Tour right now is we have The Players purse up to $20 million. The issue we are having on Tour is getting the majors to bump up their purses, cause technically we are getting a small, small piece of the pie. You got The Masters, I don’t know how much money they are making that week, but 12.5-million-dollar purse. I don’t know if I am allowed to say these numbers, but let’s just say we are getting a tiny, tiny percentage of what the PGA Tour is getting of what the total revenue is for all four majors.”

The Texas alum, who began in a five-way T2, one back of leader Scottie Scheffler, was birdie-less 2-over thru eight holes (2 bogeys), but steadied to play his final 10 in 3-under, his four circles in total dropping from between 12 and 37 feet. On nine (of 13) fairways and nine greens in regulation, he lost 0.883 strokes tee-to-green but gained a whopping 4.163 with the flat stick, buoyed by two par-savers from between seven and 11 feet. For the week, the 29-year-old posted laps of 67-67-70-69, totaled 16 birdies versus nine bogeys, and ranked 59th (of 67) in SG: Off-the-Tee (-1.840) but top 15 in all other strokes gained categories, including 10th SG: Approach (4.330) and 6th SG: Putting (5.006). This is his first top 10 of the season in six events, and first top 25, and his first top 10 since a career-best P2 as a 54-hole co-leader at last season’s Travelers 10 starts ago, where he lost to Harris English in an epic, 8-hole sudden-death playoff. See link below to post-round comments.

The Texas alum played with fellow Longhorn Scheffler and the duo were the only players from the final three groups to manage a par-or-better lap. On seven (of 13) fairways and 11 greens in regulation, he traded two birdies with two bogeys (1, 3-putt), losing strokes off-the-tee (-0.220) and on-the-green (-0.819), but gaining 0.894 on approach and 1.249 around. The Dallas resident ranks 54th SG: Off-the-Tee with a cumulative -0.824, but 3rd in SG: Approach (4.731) and 3rd SG: Around (3.776). He’ll play out of the penultimate group again on Sunday, this time with Martin Trainer and Kevin Tway, in search of his first TOUR victory in 78 events, and looks to avenge a career-best P2 at last season’s Travelers as a 54-hole co-leader, where he succumbed in extra time to Harris English after eight holes.

The Texas native and resident, who also opened with 67, finished T58 here last year as an alternate, where he sandwiched a pair of 68s with a 75 and 73. If he remains in the top 10 at the completion of R2 tomorrow (Saturday), it would be his first time there since last season’s Travelers 10 starts ago, where he was T2 before finishing a career-best P2, losing to winner Harris English in an epic, 8-hole sudden-death playoff after being a 54-hole co-leader (63-69-68-67). Beginning off No. 10 tee, the Texas alum found eight (of 13) fairways and 12 greens in regulation, offsetting two bogeys at holes 4 and 9 (3-putt from 32'3"), with five birdies at 13, 15, 16, 3, and 6 (from 24'6"). At last glance, he eked out a 0.214 SG: Putting and lost 0.538 off-the-tee, but gained 2.502 approaching and 1.492 around. See link below to post-round comments.

Hickok managed a T51 at Memorial Park Golf Course last year despite opening with a 5-over 75. He’s off to a much better start this time around as he gained more than a stroke over the field in three of the four sub-categories of strokes gained (approach, around-the-green, and putting). Hickok gave himself a steady stream of birdie looks (nine birdie looks from inside of 16 feet) and then added bonus birdies from 18'7" and 55'7" on his way into the clubhouse. The Dallas native has now been inside of the top 10 after round one in 11 events over the course of his career. He’s gone on to post top 10s in one of them (runner-up at the 2021 Travelers Championship).

The Texan led the field with 12-of-13 fairways hit and he also pelted 15 greens in regulation, tied for second-best in the field today. Those are the type of ball-striking numbers that can easily result in the low round of the day. Instead, he settled for six birdies and a pair of bogeys, to find himself four shots off the early pace. While he may have left a few strokes out there today, it’s still a solid round and a big improvement over his recent results. Following up his career-best T2 at the Travelers Championship, Hickok had rattled off six straight finishes outside of the top 55, but that should change this week after the fast start at Narashino Country Club.